Amid growing global competition and a large young population, Indonesia continues to see more students studying abroad than foreign students learning in the country.
In January, the country saw at least 77,875 local students enrolling in foreign universities in 15 countries around the world, including in Southeast Asia. The figure is almost seven times higher than the number of students originating from the same countries pursuing their study in Indonesia, which stood at 12,374.
The gap has grown larger since 2017 when 64,672 Indonesian studied in the 15 countries and 7,791 foreign students were enrolled in Indonesia.
Large gaps between outbound and inbound countries are not only observed in developed countries like the United States but also in neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, both of which received around 10,000 Indonesian students while sending only around...